Chapter 9: The Final Rest Area_1

(That's two updates for today. Remember to save and recommend this to your friends. Your support is my biggest motivation. PS: There will definitely be no two updates tomorrow.) "Welcome to the last paradise before hell, newcomers." As soon as Pannis's voice fell, a gruff voice came from the darkness ahead: "Isn't that Pannis I hear? Brought in another newbie, huh?"

The three girls hadn't expected anyone else to be here, and were caught off guard, startled. Both Catherine and Lina's right hands were already on their weapons, whereas Vivian's hands had instinctively formed a seal. Only Pannis did not go into combat readiness. Upon hearing the voice, he merely frowned in irritation, gestured for the girls to stand down, and headed towards the source of the sound without issuing a response.

As the girls followed behind Pannis, having only walked a few steps, they suddenly found themselves in a surprisingly different environment.

This was a massive cave, covering thousands of square meters. Several natural stone pillars stretched from top to bottom, connecting the cavern's ceiling and floor. Plentiful arrays of noctilucent moss grew on the cave's ceiling, lighting up the whole cave like myriad stars in the night sky. Although the cave was vast, it only had narrow entrances and exits, making it appear incredibly safe. In the center of the cave stood a semicircular stone wall, erected from boulders, creating a large makeshift campsite. It appeared the stone wall hadn't been touched or reinforced in a while; it was covered in various types of moss.

Within the confines of the wall, nine people huddled together in three separate groups, clearly members of different teams. Among one of the groups of three, one figure was barely discernible, but judging from his height and wild beard, he was indisputably a Dwarf. The Dwarf, cradling a large mug of beer, guffawed loudly: "Look, look, our scaredy-cat Pannis is back. Anyone been trying to challenge you to a duel recently? Oh, that wouldn't happen. You'd never accept anyway. Hahahaha, that's hilarious! I have to remember this joke for when I go back to Kulan and tell my son. Hey, and you've got three pretty little girls with you. Hey Pannis, did you get lost?"

"Let me see, let me see." A human beside the Dwarf also chimed in: "Can't quite make it out. Old Sneta, can you clearly see they're pretty girls? You Dwarfs with your sharp eyes. Hey, Pannis, did you bring Nana with you? This is not the Black Swan, nor a place for pretty girls. Be careful not to frighten them to tears. Hahahaha."

"Beste, keep your mouth shut if you don't want a beating," shouted a slender silhouette from the group of four.

"Damn it, Para, I wasn't talking about you." The human next to the dwarf, Beste, laughed out loud in response: "Besides, you're not exactly a pretty girl, are you? What are you worried about? Haha...oh heck, this is scalding hot, do you really want to fight?"

Pannis paid no attention to the raucous, essentially regarding them as invisible beings. He simply turned back to the three girls and announced they were "fellow adventurers", before walking straight past the boisterous group, choosing an uninhabited spot to sit down and start rummaging through his backpack.

Upon hearing the term "fellow adventurers", Catherine grew interested. Instead of sitting down with Pannis, she took a casual glance at their surroundings and started introducing herself: "We are from Nellie Adventure Team. I'm Catherine, pleased to meet all of you."

"Haha." A burst of laughter came from the area where the group of four was seated, only to be immediately muffled by a rather robust-looking individual who chastised him with a low "Mind your manners," before standing up and enquiring: "You're from the Nellie Adventure Team in the Holy City of Knowledge, correct?"

"Yes, that's us." Catherine performed a knight's salute without concerning herself with whether the others could see. "It's a pleasure to meet you all."

"The pleasure is mine." The robust man didn't come any closer; in fact, including Pannis' chosen spot, there was a noticeable distance between each group: "I am Vichy, the leader of the Iron Lion Adventure Group, and I welcome you to the only safe area in the lower cavern. How may we assist you, Miss Catherine?"

"Anything new happening recently inside?" Catherine asked casually.

"What news could there be?" The dwarf Sneta shouted in his trademark loud voice: "The demonic wolf pack has started a new round of hunting, the spore fog has claimed the Rat King's territory, the cave lizards have entered their active period. Oh, my anvil, it's always the same thing year after year. My dear girl, this is the Crying Cave; there isn't, and never will be anything new happening here, do you understand?"

"Well, I do have some news." Catherine hinted mysteriously: "Related to the inside. Would you all like to hear about it?"

"Spit it out." The ever-vocal dwarf was the first to give in to his curiosity: "What's the news? Has anyone made any new discoveries?"

"No, not really," Catherine shook her head: "The Moonlight Adventure Group from Falar, apparently, got ambushed by somebody else after a skirmish inside – the team leader and their Mage are missing. Would you classify that as news?"

"What?" Vichy from Iron Lion looked surprised: "Another adventurer did it? It's pretty rare for adventurers to attack each other now."

"I can't say for sure if it was another adventurer. It was reportedly a two-person team." Hearing Catherine's words, everyone's gaze immediately converged on the only two-member team present.

The two-member team had remained silent and motionless from the beginning, keeping their distance from everyone else and hiding in the shadows, intentionally maintaining an air of mystery. When they found everyone's attention on them, one of them finally spoke up with a deliberate, slow voice: "It's not us. We're new here as well, and you should have seen us walk in from the entrance. Plus, we're not adventurers."

The other one, his voice sharp yet remarkably succinct, just blurted out two words: "Shadow Hand, Executioner."

As the words left his mouth, the other two adventure groups moved instinctively, almost as if they wished to distance themselves from these words, but they quickly stopped, unwilling to appear weak. Catherine, shaking her head, stated: "It's not them. I have a sketch of the attackers; one of them was very tall and fat, whereas the other appeared to be a Mage."

Catherine handed the portrait to her colleagues to view in turns. After the duo from the Shadow Hand had seen it, she retrieved the portrait and returned to Pannis' side, "Everyone, keep an eye out for these two when we go back in. Also, the two from the Moonlight Adventure Group might have just been captured and not killed."

"How kind of you," Pannis retorted coldly, ceasing his bag-packing, "Concerned about their safety when we don't even know if they appreciate it."

"The boss just wants them to share the burden, and she isn't worried about them at all, hmph." Having finished speaking, Lina noticed her teammates all staring at her and added, "Why are you all looking at this lady like that?"

"Have you finished that book? It's quite thick," Catherine asked in surprise, "Did you get a new one?"

"Of course. You guys would never understand this lady's reading speed. I got a new book this morning." Lina sat on the ground, guffawing and posing triumphantly.

"So, what is it this time?" Catherine asked, pressing her forehead in exasperation.

"Look." Lina pulled out a book in the darkness and waved it, "Familiar and Me, Louise. Although the title is a bit weird."

"I'd like to know too." Vivian, who was standing nearby, pulled at Lina, "Lina, maybe you should switch books; this one is too scary."

Pannis, already recovered from the shock, ignored the trio's chatter, continued packing, and handed over three modified leather helmets. The girls were intrigued and examined the helmets carefully under the glow of the noctilucent moss. The modification was just a small indentation made of smooth silver metal on the forehead area of the helmets, which could reflect a person's image under bright light.

Pannis took out a white crystal shard the size of a fingernail, activated it, and a halo of light, slightly brighter than that of the noctilucent moss, enveloped the half-meter radius around the crystal. When Pannis had attached the crystal to the metal piece on the helmet the dispersed light condensed and became brighter, illuminating a few meters in front of the helmet clearly enough to see faces.

"This is fun," Vivian grabbed the helmet from Pannis' hands and curiously poked around.

"There's more," Pannis said, pulling out another crystal, activating it, and handing it to Vivian, "Stick this one on the top of the helmet. No, not the inside, the outside. Yeah, there. This lights up the surroundings. The one on the forehead can only light up in front and doesn't illuminate the user."

The girls assembled their crystals following Pannis's instructions, put on their helmets, and Lina cheered, "Ha, finally enough light to read."

"Are you trying to go blind?" Catherine snatched away the book Lina had pulled out again, "You're forbidden to read in the cave."

"You can't tell me what to do," Lina snapped back, hands on hips and a defiant look in her eyes, "This lady... ow, don't hit me on the head! Alright, boss, I was wrong. I won't read."

Pannis cast a questioning look at Catherine, who merely shrugged, avoiding the issue, and put on her helmet, "Are we ready to go, Mr. Pannis?"

"Let's go," Pannis stood up to lead the way to the cave's only exit. But Catherine didn't immediately follow; she stayed behind to bid the others a courteous farewell, "Fellow travelers, we'll go ahead."

"Hold on, missy, I mean, miss," dwarf Sneta called out suddenly, "I remember now. I think I saw the fat guy in the picture inside a few days ago. I'm not sure it's him, but the shape looks similar. I saw him in Crystal Hell; that scaredy-cat Pannis knows where that is."

"Thank you," Catherine thanked Sneta, sounding surprised and happy. She ran a few steps to catch up with Pannis, who was almost at the exit. As soon as she stepped onto the gateway, she felt as if she had walked through a veil of mist, while simultaneously hearing Pannis's explanation, "This is a layer of solidified one-way protection shield, effective only against demonic creatures. It's designed to prevent creatures inside from entering the rest room through the exit, but as far as I know, it's never been used."

When they reached the end of the gateway, Pannis pointed at the wall, "If you're coming back from the other side, you'll need to solve a mechanism similar to the one we encountered when we first got here. But exiting from the inside is much simpler. Two more things: firstly, you must close your eyes and activate your Aggression Shield or Magic Shield when you go out, anything might happen outside. Secondly, there's a small recess to the right of this exit that can only fit one person; there's a teleportation array on the floor that transports you directly to a hidden valley in the Nala Mountain Range for the cost of any attribute Crystal worth five thousand taels. It's hard for the adventure team to find this place if the explorer dies, but remember roughly where it is, you might need it later. That's all, we're going in now."

Pannis punched a raised area on the wall and led the way, the girls following with closed eyes and disappeared into the wall.

Emerging from the other side of the wall, the girls slowly opened their eyes; the dark world of the lower caves thus unfolded before them.